This was intended to be a one-shot, but I figured that since people seemed to like the idea, I'd continue onwards with it :)

To my reviewers:
Shivakashi: I'm glad you liked it (and even gladder that you reviewed!) I'm continuing this, thanks to you. Your suggestion of multiple chapters kinda compelled me to write more, so… I did! Thank you for inspiring me to write more! :D

k: Well, I'm glad you think it's cool! Thank you so much for reading :3

TheCrazyAlchemist: Don't worry. I do my reading and reviewing at 3 in them morning sometimes (as well as write the occasional crackfic...) so I can totally relate. I will definetly continue (as you can see, teehee) and I hope you continue to read and support me! thank you so much for the review, especially so late at night!

How to Train Your Dragon is property of DreamWorks Films, Fullmetal Alchemist is property of Hiromu Arakawa and BONES Studios. Please read, review, and enjoy!

"Hiccup!"

Two lithe arms were thrown around his torso, entrapping him in an inescapable embrace. "Oh, Hiccup, you're okay!"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine."

"You looked so sick, I was so scared…"

"I'm a Viking with one leg. It takes a lot more than that to kill me."

"Don't be stupid, Hiccup, you're the same size as a thirteen-year-old girl!"

"Whaa? Astrid!"

It was, indeed, Astrid who had latched herself around the middle of the "fallen" dragon tamer. She was the first, aside from Stoick, to be allowed in to visit with Hiccup, whose fever and infection had gone down dramatically over the course of a week. Her eyes were shut and she kept her face buried deeply in the crook between his neck and his shoulder.

Hiccup was both embarrassed and confused as to what he should do. Wrap his arms around her? Hold her hands? What? He was no romantic. He was still the socially awkward person he'd always been.

"Alright, alright, give the kid some space," Edward snorted, smirking ever so slightly as he approached the bed with a tray. "Eat."

Hiccup gratefully took the food as Astrid let go and wasted no time digging in. He was famished, having not been able to stomach much while he was sick.

Edward's cooking was… strange. It didn't taste gross, but it wasn't anything like the Norse way of preparing meals. But he did cook delicious rabbit, which was what Hiccup was enjoying presently.

Astrid watched in wonder and scrutinized the skinny young Viking. "Where does it all go?" she mumbled aloud.

Hiccup either didn't hear her, or else he didn't care, and continued on scarfing down food.

"Don't make yourself sick," Edward chided, rummaging around in his cabinets for a drink. "Where did I put the damn bottle…?"

Hiccup paused momentarily and smirked at Edward. "You finished it last night, you drunkard."

"I'm not a drunk!"

The brunette snorted. "Pfft, as though I'd buy that one. You drink yourself to sleep almost every night."

"Hey, you would too if you'd been through half the shit I have!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. Edward was always being dramatic. "Whatever, metal head."

"I wouldn't be talking," the blond said, cocking an eyebrow and nodding to Hiccup's left leg. He turned back to the cabinets and started muttering in some strange language under his breath.

Astrid had watched the Viking and the doctor banter comfortably with each other and wondered how the animosity she knew Hiccup had felt had turned to such a brotherly sort of bond with the medic. "I will never in my life understand the way your head works," she told him solemnly, shaking her head.

Hiccup cocked his cranium to the side in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Astrid shook her head again. "Forget it," she said sing-songily.

Hiccup did.

Astrid had left a few hours later, after assuaging herself that Hiccup was alright and would not die without her around. Stoick soon took her place and had a long discussion with him and Edward about automail replacements.

"He's only a boy!" Stoick insisted. "He can't make these sorts of decisions for himself!"

"I'm fifteen, dad! If I'm old enough to write up a marriage contract, I'm old enough to make a decision about my limbs!"

"Fifteen is too young!"

Edward watched the father and son amusedly for a moment, then finally put his two cents in. "If it makes any difference," he said, "I chose myself to get my automail when I was ten."

Stoick gave him a bewildered look. "And why in your right mind would you do that?"

"I have my reasons, just like Hiccup has his."

The large Viking looked from his son, to the doctor, then back to his son, then back to the doctor several times before finally saying, "So tell me about this… automail."

"It's a prosthetic limb," Edward said, rolling up his left pant leg to the knee and removing his boot. The shining metal gleamed brightly in the dim light of the fire and the occasional lamp he managed to rig up around the hut. "I know that this won't make much sense to you, but it reads signals from the brain to operate the limb like a normal body part. Even though my leg is totally gone, my head is still sending signals to move it, so what automail does is read those signals and amplify them, thus giving the limb motion."

Hiccup looked slightly confused, whilst Stoick looked totally lost.

Edward groaned. "Essentially, it moves like a regular limb because of what our brain is telling it to do. Make sense?"

"Yeah," both Vikings said.

"It's attached at something called a port," Edward continued. "Each of the severed nerves at that port are attached to wires." He yanked his pant leg up even farther, showing the two others the port pulling at the skin on his leg. "Luckily, Hiccup's leg was amputated just above the knee, like mine was, so this should be fairly easy to build. What the port does is give the rest of the leg a place to attach to the body, as well as serve as a place where the signals can be transferred from the body's nerves into the wires in the leg. You follow?"

Both nodded.

"Good."

"What sort of… problems can happen with this sort of leg?" Stoick asked cautiously.

"It's a pain in the ass in extreme temperatures. He's going to have to wear a lot of knee-high socks, several layers of thick clothes if he wants to keep himself warm. I'm going to build him a carbon model, which is lighter and better for the cold than this steel he's got on. It's a good thing he got sick; kept this for too much longer the way it is now, he'd have frostbite, and the rest of that leg'd be gone, too."

Hiccup gulped and Stoick frowned. He was going to have to have a good, long talk with Gobber about that one.

"The recovery process for two limbs is about three years, so if you figure that… then… Hmm…" Edward was momentarily distracted, calculating in his head and on his fingers. "So the rehabilitation and recovery will probably take two years for Hiccup, maybe less. I was supposed to have three years of rehab and I managed it in one, so you never know." He gave Hiccup a maniac grin. "Don't push it though, kid, or you'll be puking up blood."

Hiccup looked mildly frightened at the prospect of hurling blood while he tossed his cookies.

Edward explained that he'd need some assistance from the local blacksmith, most likely, to build the plates, nuts, and bolts necessary to complete a metal leg. He claimed that he'd take care of the rest, including the hydraulics and the wire that was needed to build automail.

Stoick had agreed to ask Gobber and that was that. Until the wires and hydraulics were complete, there was simply nothing more Hiccup could do but go home and wait.

Yeah, yeah, its short. So sue me. I'm sorry that life enjoys getting in my way.

There will definetly be more where this came from! It may be a while, but I will definitely complete this story, because now I have an idea of what I want to happen and where I want it to go.

And will there be some HiccupxAstrid action? Frick yes.

And will I somehow manage to get some EdxWinry in? Ahh, you know me too well. YES.

Please review, criticism is definitely appreciated!